It’s giveaway time! Last time we gave away some pretty cool prizes, but this time we’re giving away a whole bunch of RIFT goodies! Specifically, 1 30-day Patron pass, 3 Toxic Hellbug mounts (no, not the Hellbug pictured above– Toxic Hellbugs are puke-green in color and the rarest type!), and 3 Hellbug pets. If you haven’t checked out Trion World’s RIFT yet, now’s a great chance to try out this F2P fantasy MMORPG.

RIFT’s Hellbugs– they come in pretty colors, look awesome when they jump, and are currently helping fire rifts see a lot of action. One problem, however. The drop rates on these little and not-so-little guys are very random and a little low for many players’ tastes. The combination of the two makes completing a Hellbug mount/pet collection fairly time consuming. Unless, of course, the RNG gods are on your side so to speak.

RNG, which stands for ‘random number generation’, is the acronym us gamers like to use when our odds of obtaining goodies are purely left to the virtual dice. By now, most of us are familiar with the concept of RNG mount drops in RIFT and remember it from past world events where players were either lucky or, well, weren’t. Trion took a hint from players after Waves of Madness and promptly started offering mount rewards during world events that didn’t require a whole lot of luck. The past few world events mounts have been really easy to nab, in fact.

Hellbugs are pouring out of fire rifts everywhere in RIFT, but Hellbug mounts, on the other hand, are proving a little more difficult to come across. RNG is RNG, as they say, but Trion is making one adjustment to help us out during our searches. In a future patch, all Hellbug rewards including pets and mounts will be made Bind on Account. The announcement was made first by MikeD then later confirmed by Elrar, who also reminded players that these rifts will stick around for a while, so there’s no need to feel pressured to farm all of the Hellbugs within this first week of release.

Just wanted to mention again – the Invasive Species Fire Rift will remain in-game for the forseeable future, at this time there are no plans to remove it from the regular rotation of fire rifts.

As Mike mentioned – all of the Hellbug rewards will be made Bind on Account in an upcoming Hot Fix.

If ya feel a bit burned out (no pun intended) on killing Hellbugs trying to get the rarer rewards I encourage you to take a break and enjoy other parts of RIFT – they’ll be there for ya when you return

During last Friday’s official RIFT live stream event, the Trion team showed off some pretty awesome Dendrome goodies. We found out a bit more about the Architects, which is the insectoid race that has helped Crucia build a few of her undertakings. Laethys was the last true master of the Architects. They’re from the Plane of Earth but aren’t greedy for gold and treasures. They do consume the life force and energy from living things, however, which is a process that leaves behind piles of sand as a byproduct of sorts, which is why the Dendrome is half sand and half lush forest. It’s also why Ashora is full desert.

The goal of the Architects? To have another Queen, it would seem. A fair bit of concept art like this image was previewed during the stream. Elrar also showed us the interior of the Infinity Gate, which is pretty huge. We also saw a sneak peek of the new Hellbug rifts (and mounts/pets!) coming to RIFT starting on Wednesday, May 1st.

During Trion’s Friday live stream extravaganza yesterday, Elrar and UnloadedUT hosted a second Dimensional Thunderdome event that took place in the new Moonshade Pools dimension on the PTS. Dimensional Thunderdome is, well, pretty awesome, and definitely worth the watch if you missed the live stream. Dimension-building experts facing off on teams to see who can build the coolest random-object-in-a-hat? Entertainment at its RIFTiest.

One highlight of the show was Elrar stealthily throwing in a preview of a new vanity pet coming to RIFT. Raptr users will immediately recognize the little guy who’s previewed above in the title image. Yep, that’s the Raptr raptor! Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Raptr, it’s this nifty gaming site and software that’s free and can be used to connect with other gamers, share screenshots, news, etc., and track your gaming time. Raptr often pairs up with game companies like Trion to give away in-game goodies and promotions as a reward for being a member of Raptr.

So, Elrar said something pretty interesting during last Friday’s Trion Worlds live stream event. The team was talking about the upcoming launch of Defiance, which is Trion’s MMOTPS that’s a direct crossover with the upcoming SyFy television series by the same name, and Elrar asked about the special red Dodge Challenger mount that’s obtainable when pre-ordering Defiance. A player in-game then asked if we’d see the Dodge Challenger make an appearance in RIFT as well (at around 11 minutes into the live stream). Elrar answered with this: “No, but there is going to be a sweet, pimped-out ride from Defiance making an appearance in RIFT. Ssh!”

Since trucks and pimped-out ATVs don’t make a whole lot of sense in RIFT, our best guess so far is that we may be seeing a Hellbug mount. What’s a Hellbug, you ask? Take a look at the title image. That’s a Hellbug. Hellbugs are some of the main enemies in Defiance and come in all sorts of shapes and sharp-toothed sizes. They also make a super cuddly plushie and mascot of sorts, but don’t tell them that.

A Hellbug would make a pretty fitting RIFT mount, especially considering the wide array of cool-looking beasties we’ve already tamed as Ascended. As rumors would have it, the data for a Hellbug mount, pet, and accompanying mobs have reportedly been found hidden in the PTS files. When will we see them make a live appearance? Hard to say, but soon hopefully, especially considering Defiance launches April 2nd! For more Defiance news and info, check out the official Defiance site as well as our sister site, Defiance Junkies.